Tim Tebow Playing Baseball is Good For America

Ben Kotenko
Jul 28, 2017 · 10 min read
USA Today http://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/07/new-york-mets-tim-tebow-st-lucie-hitting-300-home-runs-proving-haters-wrong

Tim Tebow’s lack of ability to effectively throw the football ultimately lead to a premature end to his career as an NFL quarterback. That being said, it remains an absolute mystery why he decided to announce his interest in pursuing a career playing baseball in 2016. Reportedly not having played since high school, it was easy to read this pursuit as his one last desperate pine for attention. All the same, when I discovered the news that Tim Tebow was playing a game a very reasonable distance away, it was immediately assured that my Dad and I were going to make our way out for a game. Having previously been a captivated audience to many of Tim Tebow’s other greater athletic exploits in the past, no event in my mind could even be a comparable opportunity to see someone with so much fame and success in one aspect of life, willingly subject themselves to the lower rungs of another notable profession. It would have been like watching Mathew McConaughey play guitar opening for Kenny Chesney, Stephen Spielberg become an Instagram travel photographer, or a former reality star deciding to enter the Republican Presidential Primary.

Far from the only individuals with such interest, Osceola County Stadium, home of the Florida Fire Frogs, saw record ticket sales over the four days of their Florida State League matchup against the visiting Port St. Lucie Mets, the team that just so happens to be the Minor League home of a certain popular college football studio analyst. For a few points of context on just how impressive that late July weekend of ticket sales was for the team:

  • The Fire Frogs sold 18,206 total tickets over four days, and averaged more than 4,500 sold per day.
  • Last years average ticket sales for their entire league was 1,353
  • The highest ticket selling team in the league, the Clearwater Threshers, averaged 2,710
  • Fellow league member, the Lakeland Flying Tigers, sold only 20,387 tickets in their entire season last year.

Few athletes career arcs have been more compelling to follow in my lifetime than Tim Tebow’s, as most notably evidenced by the “Worldwide Leader in Sports’ ” overwhelming amount of coverage for the most significant and obscure points in his career. And yet, I was still struck by the instant interest generated in the great many of us in the crowd, to take the time and money to go see a minor league baseball game. It begged the question in my mind: what is it about Tim Tebow’s career that necessitates the adulation and support he’s received?___________________________________________________________________

Tebow’s entrance into the greater national consciousness came as a lightly contributing freshman backup quarterback on the University of Florida’s 2007 National Champion college football team. Named the starter for the 2007–2008 campaign as a sophomore, he would go on to win the Heisman Trophy Award for college footballs best player in the same year, and win another national championship the following season in 2009. Growing up a fan of the University of Georgia Bulldogs in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, my earliest football memories involve how much I simultaneously hated and admired the unusual quarterback of one of our principal rivals. From 2006–2009, watching Florida and Georgia’s annual game in late October in Jacksonville, meant subjecting myself to Tim Tebow engineering wins against the Bulldogs three out of his four years. Today he occupies a unique space in football history as perhaps the most unusual individual to ever play the quarterback position at any high level. A quarterback’s aptitude for throwing a ball accurately down field has classically been understood to be of paramount importance to a team’s success. Even in college, one might have only charitably described Tebow’s mechanics for tossing the ball as at best, “serviceable.” His compensation for such deficiencies came by way of playing in what’s known as ‘the wildcat offense.’ A system that created the threat of a passing game, the wildcat offense more specifically focused on rewarding his great prowess as a physical and tenacious runner to turn him into a human wrecking ball, looking to demolish anyone in his way. Standing at 6'3 245 pounds, Super Bowl Champion winning coach John Gruden once referred to him as “the strongest human being who’s ever played the position.”

Tebow’s On-Campus Statue at the University of Florida

Going into their 2010 season, the Denver Broncos, a prominent NFL franchise with a storied history of success, found themselves staring down a four-year stretch without making the playoffs. Tim Tebow would be able to leverage that drought to convince the Broncos to look past concerns about his throwing ability, and make him a first round draft pick based on his identity as a passionate leader, high character individual, and most importantly, a winner. Implored to great lengths by the media and a restless Broncos fanbase (which included me, now living in Denver, now empowered to support the man who terrorized my childhood team), Coaches Josh McDaniels and John Fox were both eventually coerced against their wishes into giving Tebow a chance to see action. He would start only the meaningless final three games of his rookie season, but doing so would mercifully offer fans a timeout from the woeful tenures of Kyle Orton and Brady Quinn. When subsequently given the chance to start in his second season, Tebow would not only win seven of the last eleven games of the season, but also lead the Broncos back to their first playoffs in half a decade, and possibly court divine intervention to help them win their first round matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the most absolutely ludicrous of fashions. But as euphoric as attitudes around the team still were three months removed from one of the most dramatic finishes in NFL history, the saga of Tim Tebow the football player would begin to run far off the rails. When Peyton Manning signed with Denver that March, the Broncos would trade Tebow to the Jets, where he would be severely misused, start only two games, and be released at the end of the season. Following his release he would sign non-guaranteed training camp contracts with the Patriots and Eagles, but never make a teams roster again. He joined ESPN as a broadcast analyst in 2013, and has not played a down of competitive football since.

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Opting not to purchase the $50 Tebow VIP Experience ticket, we were turning down opportunities to be on the field with the two teams for batting practice AND take home a commemorative bottle of dirt from the game. Luckily, we still happened upon $13 tickets six rows behind third base, 20 yards from Tim Tebow’s position in Left Field. Without prompt, the first thing my Dad said to me upon seeing him in person for the first time was, “he’s too big.” The scoreboard informed us that he was now standing at 250 pounds, five pounds heavier than his listed weight in college. It was immediately clear the weight was in no way a result of letting himself go in his brief retirement. But the large size of his arms did seem to produce a noticeable delay on his throws from the outfield and his swing (a common explanation offered for the source of his poor throwing mechanics throughout his football career). Speculation fell frequently from those in attendance, touching upon all angles of his life now: “His teammates must love the opportunity to play in front of a crowd. Does he actually stay in motels with these guys? I hear he might get called up in September, the Mets are terrible.” Though the speculation was rampant, it was almost exclusively from a positive place, occupied by no expectations, or at least no idea what to expect. It’s obvious from how many people that have come to witness the spectacle that he’s not only an impossibly famous individual on his quarterback career alone. His unwavering support to his faith and propensity for polarizing speeches have made him a household name with Americans everywhere, by no means exclusive to football fans. Jerseys bearing the name ‘Tebow’ on the back, from each of his professional stops (including Denver, New York, Philadelphia, and even New England), as well as large pockets of University of Florida blue and orange littered the stands. As he approached the plate for his first at bat to leadoff the second inning, there was almost a nervous energy that permeated the crowd. The idea that as much as people wanted to, it was almost impossible to suspend knowledge of the fact that this was one of the most famous people on the planet squaring up in the box. And even though he would only put a hard hit ball right at the feet of the first baseman for an easy ground out, the positive vibes remained, many jokingly suggesting they’d never seen someone give so much energy to running out a play, “classic Tebow.”

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In spite of his throwing ability, Tim Tebow is considered by many a top 10 college football player of all time, and achieved everything there is to achieve at the level. What kept him from doing the same for the Broncos stems in the many differences that exist between the college and the pro games. College coaches are compensated extremely well to locate and prepare 18–23 year olds for high levels of competition against one of hundreds of NCAA teams on a week-to-week basis, each populated with rosters of comparably talented athletes. Recruits like Tim Tebow with unique skill sets are extremely attractive to college coaches. Within the right systems, they cause overwhelmed opposing coaches to throw out their normal preparation to scheme specifically how to get their own raw players to stop unique players on short notice. Until he was tasked with competing against the highest levels of professionals, Tebow was never forced to confront the fact that his shortcomings might evolve into his undoings. NFL coaches only have to plan for 32 other teams, and enjoy the benefit of working alongside other adults that are also handsomely compensated. As the amount of different possible looks a team has to prepare for falls, professional coaches and players are ultimately far better equipped to be ready for anything than those in college. The idea of building systems predicated on compensating for deficiencies is no longer feasible for the coaches that inherit unique college players that go pro. In Tebow’s case, opposing talent was now too great for him to be one dimensional as only a runner. By not being able to throw the ball effectively down field and staunchly refusing to change positions, a place did not exist for him in the NFL.

USA Today http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/08/denver-broncos-nfl-tim-tebow-friar-rookie-haircuts

College sports also have the tendency to transition successful players into legends within the minds of it’s fans, and further create unreachable standards of excellence for their careers going forward. How long a college career can possibly be, is especially defined and definitive; we have a well-established standard excellence for what to expect as far as what a ‘legendary’ career should look like. As a result, every move made in college sports is scrutinized in terms of what a legendary predecessor certainly would or would not have done. The greatest in the sports history require only one name for their identification: Woody, Bo, Bear, Herschel, Flutie, Saban. When Tebow’s college career ended in 2009, he earned 5 national statistical records, 14 conference records, all in addition to his Heisman and National Championships. There was no doubt he accomplished enough to weather any storms that comparison to another college player could have leveled against him. His place as a legend in the minds of sports fans everywhere was cemented forever. Unfortunately, the difficult expectations that success created for Tebow to have about himself would be just as damaging. When it became clear he was no longer going to have an NFL career, an especially daunting case was created. A former highly successful individual was suddenly no longer able to do the one thing that had been his singular focus since childhood, when he was only in his 20's. Much is made of Tim Tebow’s advanced age in comparison to his minor league teammates; at the time of his last NFL training camp he was only 28 years old, he’s still only 29 now. The idea that he would no longer be able to compete after spending his entire adult life participating in arguably the most competitive job field on the planet probably scared the hell out of him.

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Tebow wouldn’t do anything half as impressive this night as the walk off he’d hit the week before, or even the home run from the night before. Still, everyone seemed to take a deep breath on every one of the 6 or 7 balls that would be hit his way in left field. Same for the three other times he would make his way to the plate the rest of the night. Someone would ask me afterward who won the game, and I genuinely could not remember. Competitive baseball wasn’t the reason the the vast majority of us that did decided to show up. In fact, going forward, I believe that whether Tim Tebow makes it to the major league level is almost irrelevant from a fan perspective. If you’re his supporter, you’d undoubtedly be thrilled if he made the Mets, but you’re almost certainly already content with the fact that he’s still active in any public way. The most interesting thing about the crowd that congregated at Osceola County Stadium that night, was how supportive an atmosphere they created. For this game, the collective interest was singularly focused on whether the two-time national champion, the one time playoff game winner, and the subject of the hottest song of 2012, could hit a fastball. As a result, the game fostered a communal attitude as lighthearted and carefree as any sporting event I’ve ever been to. At this divisive moment in history, anything that has the potential to bring us together and make us forget about the imminent doom that may be surrounding us, is unassailably a good thing. People are attracted to the story of an underdog who persevere against the odds to make a comeback. If you happen to find yourself compelled to follow such a story, let me suggest to you the ongoing odyssey of a one time flawed legend, current endearing long shot, who has decided to place himself once again in the cross hairs of the worlds scrutiny, all in pursuit of what would be attaining one of the greatest comebacks in his industries history: Tim Tebow.

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